Child&#39;s toy for use in feeding



y 1.9, 1970 DATHIS MALHERBE E AL CHILDS TOY FOR USE IN FEEDING FiledJune 7. 1967 FIG. 3

SUZANNE JEANNE MARIE MALHERBE d'ATHIS BY IRONS, BIRCH, SWINDLER &MOKII'I ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,512,297 CHILDS TOY FOR USE INFEEDING Suzanne Jeanne Marie Malherbe dAthis, 46 Rue de Rome, Paris 8,France Filed June 7, 1967, Ser. No. 644,341 Claims priority, applicationFrance, June 7, 1966,

4,418 Int. Cl. A63h 33/00 US. Cl. 46-1 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURECROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION Applicant claims priority fromcorresponding French application Ser. No. 64,418, filed June 7, 1966.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a toyintended to occupy the attention of young children, especially thoseaged six to twelve months, while they are being fed, in the course ofwhich operation the child tries to snatch the spoon offered to him, orthe plate placed in front of him. The problem is essentially to distracthis attention and occupy his hands, so as to be able to feed him withoutany commotion. The toy that is the subject of the present inventionanswering to this need is characterized in that it comprises a box witha transparent lid. It can be attached to a table, particularly fittinginto the tray on a childs chair. The box contains balls, rattles,figurines or other similar objects, and it presents on the side turnedtoward the child openings for his hands, preferably furnished withsleeves of flexible material such as plastic.

The box is preferably fixed permanently on a pinafore that protects thechild, or it has means for hooking the lower edge removably to thebottom of the box near the rear edge thereof. The pinafore can befurnished with a removable sponge napkin.

As example, there is described below and illustrated in the attacheddrawing a form of embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows in perspective a childs chair on which the toy of theinvention has been installed;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the box;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2; and,

FIG. 4 is a view similar to that of FIG. 3, of a modified form of theinvention.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the toy which is the subject of the inventioncomprises a box 1, preferably of semirigid plastic material such aspolyethylene, furnished with a transparent lid 2 made of a similarmaterial and fitting elastically into the upper end of box 1. Said box 1can, for example, have a substantially circular external configurationwhich allows it to fit onto a tray 4 which has a raised edge 5, of achild's chair as shown in FIG. 1. However, it is of course understoodthat the configuration of the box is not an essential characteristic ofthe invention.

3,512,297 Patented May 19, 1970 On the side 6 of box 1 which is turnedtoward the child there are two openings 7, 7' which allow the child tointroduce his hands to grasp objects such as colored balls 8, 8', 8"which are arranged in it and preferably fixed to the interior of thebox, e.g. by means of elastic threads 9, 9', 9", which objects the childsees through the transparent lid.

The threads can pass through the wall of the box and be furnished withknobs or grips 17, 17', 17" so as to form pulls, allowing the person whois working with the child to cause the balls to move and thereby attractthe childs attention.

Instead of balls, it is likewise possible to furnish rattles of anyconfiguration, figurines, small rubber or plastic animals or any otherlight toys that would attract a child of this age. Openings 7, 7' arepreferably furnished with sleeves 10, 10" of flexible material, e.g.made of a sheet of thin plastic material, which will somewhat restrainthe abrupt movements of the childs hands.

The box is preferably made integral with a pinafore that is attached tothe neck and to the belt of the child, the pinafore being permanentlyattachable to the bottom of the box near the rear edge thereof, or beingmade so that it can be hooked removably to the box by any appropriatemeans. The pinafore must be long enough not to be stretched, and alsolong enough to form a trough 12, to catch food that the child may letfall from the spoon.

In order to allow the child readily to see the toys contained in box 1through transparent lid 2 without making it necessary for him to leanforward, it is preferable that the said lid or the box as a whole betilted toward the child. Thus, for example, in the embodiment shown inFIG. 3, the bent side wall 13 of the box extends beyond the bottom 14with a height that decreases from front to back, to give to base 14 andlid 2 a sloped position when the edge of side wall 13 rests on ahorizontal surface.

In the modification shown in FIG. 4, the desired slope of box 1 can beattained by means of a foot 15 fixed on base 14 of the box near itsfront edge, the said foot being furnished at its extremity with asuction cup 16 that allows fixation of box 1 on its support.

Box 1 can be easily manufactured from a relatively thin plate ofpolyethylene, bent or folded to the desired configuration and held inshape by its welded base and by the lid which is elastically andremovably fitted into the upper edge of the box, like the lids of boxesintended to contain food, particularly in refrigerators.

It will of course be understood that many modifications could be made inthe embodiment herein described, without departure from the scope of theinvention.

I claim:

1. A toy particularly intended to distract the attention of youngchildren while they are being fed comprising a box containing aplurality of attention-attracting objects and having a transparent lidto permit viewing those objects, said box being of size andconfiguration suitable for placement on the tray of a childs high chair,the box having openings into said space of a size such as to permit achild to insert his hands into said space to grasp the toys, saidattention-attracting objects having flexible threads attached theretowhich extend through said box at the side thereof opposite said openingsto permit manipulation of the toys by the person feeding the child.

2. The toy of claim *1 having flexible sleeves surrounding and extendingoutward of said openings to guide the childs hands into said space.

3. The toy of claim 1 in which said box has a bottom wall and said lidis tilted downwardly from front to back toward said openings so that thecontents of the box may readily be seen by the child.

4. The toy of claim 1 having a suction cup support at the bottom frontend thereof to releasably secure the box to the tray of the high chairand tilt the box upwardly for ready viewing of the contents by thechild.

5. The toy of claim 1 including a pinafore having one end thereofattached to the bottom end of said box below said openings, saidpinafore having a head opening for the child and operable to extendbetween the child and the toy to catch food not consumed by the child.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 3/1945 England.

F. BARRY SHAY, Primary Examiner 10 J. A. OLIFF, Assistant Examiner US.Cl. X.R.

